these are the first votes in the 2012 race for the white house. they occurred in iowa tonight. let's show you, if you are just tuning in, what happened. mitt romney is the winner. he comes in ahead of rick santorum, former senator from pennsylvania. but by only eight votes, 30,015 for mitt romney. rick santorum, 30,007. ron paul comes in third. newt gingrich, fourth. rick perry who will later announce after a disappointing fifth, that he was going to go to texas instead of south carolina and reassess whether or not he should continue in this race. he comes in fifth and then michele bachmann, who says she is continuing, comes under sixth. jon huntsman who didn't participate in the iowa caucuses is working in new hampshire next tuesday the primary fles new hampshire. let's go over to to all of our cnn team. it's been a remarkable, remarkable evening. and we also, anderson, had a

little fun. >> we did. yes. and oddly, the fun apparently is continuing, because we are still on the air. >> yes. >> long after we thought we wouldn't be. >> right. >> in the special cnn after dark edition. so gloria, in terms of tomorrow, i mean we will find mitt romney -- >> you mean today. >> today. a few hours from now, mitt romney will head it new hampshire as well as rick santorum. >> right, romney is going to new hampshire where he has a sizeable lead. he is clearly the favorite in new hampshire. he is going it say he's got the wind at his back. >> you are talking about, like 47%. >> right. >> we have a brand new poll that came out tonight. >> 30% ahead. >> 30% ahead, right? >> if you are mitt romney to nate, you are thinking, okay, rick santorum doesn't have a lot of national potential. ron paul doesn't have a lot of national potential. so if the top three -- if he could have picked the top three, these are the three would he have picked. in this order. >> certain lit fact that perry,

who did have deep pockets, did have a lot of money, seems to be out of the race. >> back it texas. i think the person who could do him some real damage here is newt gingrich. because i think it is getting awfully personal between the two of them. and i think newt gingrich is rebran rebranding himself and will go on the attack. watch out, he is very effective. >> if you are a president obama supporter, you are kind of licking your lips at this point in excitement. because it seems like they are going to be firing at each other now. >> i would just keep war out of this. i think the debates and we get to, you know, primaries coming, it will get ugly. i think you will see gingrich ripping into romney. i think others will join in. i think ron paul definitely well. and romney will face, i think for the first time, a proper forensic assault from competitors. >> we are already forgetting that earlier in date, romney,

you know, he came under blistering attack from newt gingrich who called him a liar. >> that's right. >> the not a flip-flopper, serial hypocrisy but a liar. >> and calling ron paul disgusting. >> yeah. now there or two debates this weekend. and i think gloria made this point. you can see it on our boards. people who cared about social issues, 49%, those are the people who went for rick santorum. socialist issues around the table. abortion, gay marriage, gun rights. you see gun rights brought up in the newt gingrich ad coming out tomorrow about how romney was for gun control in massachusetts but then the social issues front and center in front of american people. >> i think anderson is right about, this is where rick santorum could be exposed. he has extreme positions to moderates in the party. he hasn't been attacked. he hasn't been near the front running. new that he is, some views will

be heavily scrutinized and could be under fire as well. >> seems to me that mitt romney and his team came in here feeling that if they could just win this, and then they win new hampshire, they could wrap it up. and they did win. a win is a win as pies pointed out. they deserve credit for that. at same time, he was denied the sense tonight that co-now wrap it up quickly. clearly there is going to go on for a while. clearly south carolina becomes an important state. i think romney is likely to be the nominee. the only way you can take it away from him, someone has it meet him somewhere. i think they have to meet him in south caroline why. >> it becomes one of the more interesting states because in terms of competition, santorum, ron paul, newt gingrich are going to be targeting there, a lot more, because they think their chances are bet are than new hampshire. >> also jon huntsman, he has been putting everything on new hampshire. he kept well away from iowa. i think you will see him come out tomorrow. coming on my show tomorrow night, he will be very strong,

very loud now. because he is going to sense blood too. >> but his problem will be that rick santorum will get a lot of attention, get a lot of the oxygen. >> was it a mistake for huntsman ton play in iowa sh. >> you know, a mistake for huntsman m and a mistake for tim pawlenty. >> pawlenty got out of the race in terms of perry get into the race. >> there are a lot of can dates as john king said ten hours ago, are maybe rethinking having got out. >> like mike huckabee you think? >> perhaps. >> it is a very divided party. this isn't a party that is co-elessing. you have santorum with moral issues. you have ron paul and libertarians. you have fed issues tril yn dollars out of budget. you have the businessman and i

can create jobs and you know, this is not a party that is really co-lessing, they don't agree. >> at least alomong the candidas in the next few days will be focused on barack obama and more focused on one another. >> we have some historical factoids to share. i want everybody to pay attention. rolland, you paying attention over there? >> not really, wolf. >> this is important. james, pay attention to this. i know all of you will be -- an excellent, excellent polster and researchers, this is what he is telling us right new np was romney's eight-vote margin the closest in the history of presidential primaries and caucus nets united states? >> and the answer is -- >> yes. >> yes. >> no. >> the answer is no. >> barack obama beat hillary clinton in the 2008 guam caucus by seven votes.

that was the closest. >> how did we forget that. >> that is the closest primary. >> we covered that, by the way. >> on the republican side, it was the closest. iowa 2012 was the closest republican contest in history beating 1936 south dakota primary. piers you will remember this one. the 1936 primary won by land yn with 257-vote margin. >> i don't remember staying up until 3 a.m. for the guam caucus. >> wolf, can we get voted off the island so we can go home? >> no. >> i tried, guys. i tried. >> history, pretty good stuff. >> yeah. >> what happens when newt gingrich in terms of new hampshire? if he comes forth there, does he havefully future? in this race? >> sure. >> he has strength in south carolina. >> he is polling well in south carolina. >> he can afford to do badly in new hampshire and still win the race. >> what is badly? >> fourth.

>> i think everything now depends on south carolina for all these guys. i think it is very difficult to beat romney. they can hope to mario the margin but somebody has to beat him in south carolina. >> and florida. >> the expectation was south carolina was one he might lose. but now, with mitt romney, you just keep hearing it. now he that has win every one. where before it was different. >> do you now go negative? >> yeah. >> do you revert really to the meet the people -- >> he will. >> and he will get it from all sides too. not only romney folks but the poll people have been attacking him and will continue to. >> rolland, you paying attention over there. >> i am. >> pay attention. 25 delegates at stake in iowa. cnn estimated since it is not winner take all in iowa, how they break down. romney, seven.

santorum, seven. paul seven opinion gingrich two. perry, two. that's whatter with estimating right now. once they go to the republican convention in tampa this summer, that's how the 25 delegate votes at the convention will break down. let's take another quick break. more coverage after this. great guest experience. that makes my day. and during the four course feast, there's so much to choose from. [ male announcer ] the four course seafood feast is back at red lobster. still just $15. get soup, salad, unlimited cheddar bay biscuits, dessert, and your choice of 7 entrées, like new honey bbq shrimp skewers or shrimp and scallops alfredo. all four courses, just $15. [ jody ] it's really good value. all my guests love it. i'm jody gonzalez, red lobster general manager. and i sea food differently.

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the iowa caucuses are now history and dramatic history. it was a mitt romney win by eight votes, but it was a proportional representation going forward to the republican national convention. delegates you need for the race, 1,144. that's our estimate right now to nominate the republican candidate who will challenge barack obama in november of this year. right now, if you add what happened in iowa where the top three each got seven delegates, that's what we're estimating

because it's not winner take all. plus, the previously selected delegates for various reasons, party leaders or whatever, you've got romney with 18, santorum, eighth, rick paul who's off to texas, four. newt gingrich, two. bachmann and huntsman each with zero. those are the counts very, very early in the process. we're now off to new hampshire and i'm off to see john king. let's look ahead a little bit. iowa is now history, important history. we're moving onto new hampshire, south carolina, florida, nevada. >> if this were five hours ago, essentially since we're waking up, people are still in the middle of the campaign. here is iowa tonight. all of the purple is rick santorum. mitt romney winning where the people are. now, does this project forward? this is mike huckabee, christian

conservative in 2008. rick santorum essentially bashed that. let's move over to new hampshire. we don't have any results from this year's campaign, so let's go back to 2008 and go to the republican side. mike huckabee was orange in iowa. if rick santorum is the christian conservative, you don't find evangelicals in the state of new hampshire. ind pent independents can vote. rick santorum very smart tonight. focused on blue collar economics, not so much the cultural issues. can he make an end road on the economy? newt gingrich also has a lot to prove. he has one week to prove he has staying power if he comes in behind ron paul and behind mitt romney and conceivably, behind rick santorum. so gingrich has a lot to prove here. santorum has a lot to prove here. ron paul had 10% in iowa four years ago. he built it up over 20%. 8% in new hampshire for ron

paul, four years ago, a big test to see whether he can grow. and then state number three in the republican process is a state that is decisive. delegates matter if this goes on for weeks and weeks. sometimes, momentum decides the nomination. if somebody can win two out of the first three or three out of the first three, it can end quickly. you get into south carolina by the orange, the huckabee vote, much more hospitable to a christian conservative candidate. governor perry's decision to go home and reassess could be a benefit to rick santorum if he has legs because look what happened in 2008. john mccain won south carolina. mike huckabee got 30% of the vote. why? because he filled noo these counties up here, but fred thompson stayed in the race. he did well in a lot of these counties. i'll just touch one, fred thompson, 21% right there. imagine if those votes go to mike huckabee in that state? it would have been very different. so by the time we get to south carolina, the calculation may be

if perry's not active, does bachmann stay in the race? in that case, south carolina, again, could be the key. romney proves himself here. a lot of people think he could end it. if not, let me just bring out the map, state number four is florida where you had john mccain seal the race last time, essentially. this could be the decisive state. those are the first four all this month. >> go back to south carolina for a moment. mitt romney has a huge endorsement in south carolina, namely, the governor. how important is nickey hailey for mitt romney in south carolina because that could be decisive? >> nickey was a huge storm in the 20120 election. hailey winning with 20% of the vote. she's very popular in the state among conservatives. we don't have results yet, obviously. we'll go back to 2008. we'll show you the republicans. you have a popular governor

where you know the opposition is going to say mitt romney is not a trustworthy source. rick santorum will criticize him on many issues. we might have a replay of 2008, where in south carolina, you heal hear mitt romney and massachusetts was pro-choice on abortion rights. that could be a replay here having the backing of a prominent tea party conservative could make a difference. she's coming to new hampshire with mitt romney in the days ahead. >> so is john mccain. >> the establish is with me. what romney wants to prove in the next two weeks in new hampshire and then south carolina is that i'm the strongest candidate against president obama, the establishment is with me. i'm inevitable. i'm inevitable. that's what romney wants to prove. but he was very smart tonight saying he knows he's going to have to earn it. >> let's go over to the table, john. come on over. we've got all of our team here, watching what's going on. and, as we assess, you know,

looking ahead a little bit, you know, erin, if you look ahead to south carolina and florida, new hampshire, i think all of us can agree mitt romney is going to win. david, you're in boston. any doubt about mitt romney and new hampshire? >> no, i think the only question is the margin. >> and how gingrich does, whether gingrich can prove himself viable. a lot of people in the party do not like speaker gingrich. he is, by far, the best debater in terms of a single candidate who will take on mitt romney. the question is he lived off the land for a long time after the staff shake up. you can do that in the months up to iowa voting. now we go state to state to state. >> last time, we had the bull from florida was when gingrich had the surge. so you had this huge gap where you had gingrich and then everyone else. but it's been a while since we've been able to see. >> there's another fly in the ointment in new hampshire, which is independent voters. ron paul did very well with independent voters tonight.

or yesterday. whenever that was. >> and so we don't, you know, independent voters can vote in the republican primary. >> you know, if the debate becomes more about social issues does that then turn off other independent voters who might view otherwise? >> i don't believe the debate will be about social issues. not in new hampshire. it's possible by the time we get to south carolina. but, remember, you start getting back into these issues. you debate the social issues and you may have, again, 2008, romney's credibility came up. senator santorum is the pure conservative. but the problem for speaker gingrich when he makes this argument is romney campaign will come back and say speaker gingrich was for the individual mandate on health care, not a social issue, but an important issue for the tea party. you will replay, if not more mitt romney, for ron paul, newt gingrich on the couch with nancy pelossi. so this is not a clean cut contrast for speaker gingrich. >> yeah, the other part of this,

i think, wolf, in new hampshire is whether santorum can gain traction. you saw in our own poll, he went from five to ten. and the question is if he can get some real traction going, still lose, but get traction going, he would go into south carolina as the lead alternative! one thing that's really interesting, everyone knows mitt romney, people always say people settle for him. but when you look at tonight's entrance, look at who strongly favor has reservations. have reservations about mitt romney, 29% of the voters. santorum? 250%. so there were a lot of people who had reservations about him, as well. we sort of want a composite sit candidate. a little bit of rick. >> that's why you see so many leaders in this field. they want the perfect candidate. >> they were in love with rick santorum i think was interesting. it's almost as high as romney. >> you think romney is going to try to maintain this presidential position, only

talking about obama and being very polite to all of his competitors. but they're going to be ripping his throat out. the question is can he hold his temper? can he hold himself? >> he doesn't need to say anything. these packs have been doing all of the dirty work. we've got to take a quick break. but speaking about love, we have some new graphics that we're going to unvail. so we'll take a quick break. you talk about a loving candidate. it's after dark, after all. stay tuned for that. we'll be right back. you gettin? is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪ and more. if you replace 3 tablespoons of sugar a day with splenda®, you'll save 100 calories a day. that could help you lose up to 10 pounds in a year. and now get even more with splenda® essentials,

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the iowa caucuses kicked off with a very busy month. this coming tuesday, the lead off primary of the year in new hampshire on january 10th. then the race moves south. join us for the southern presidential debate on january 19th followed by the first

southern contest on january 2 1st. next, it's onto florida for the fl l republican presidential debate on january 26th. it's the scene center for the florida primary five days later on january 31st. and we'll be there every step of the way. we're going to continue this tradition with our brand new nightly show for each of these contests. tell our viewers a little bit about them. >> that's right. welcome, it's cnn after dark. [ laughter ] >> do we have any graphics for that? where's the music? >> that's not cnn after dark. it's got to be more of a little barry white. a little luther vandross. >> keep those graphics up a little bit, guys. we want to see those graphics. we want to absorb this new moment. there it is right there. >> it's a whole new cnn.

>> the earth mix is not the right music. >> no. >> yeah, i've got nothing more. i'm sorry. how was that? i'm done. [ laughter ] >> all right, roll it, martin. >> roll it? what are you doing? he's taking pictures of us. >> all of the cnn executives are actually sleep right now. go ahead, pick a couple of hosts and watch this show. what the heck. let's just do it. >> we were talking about florida and the scheduling of it, mitt romney has started doing ad buys in florida. >> he put a new ad up, the campaign did just today. but previous to that, restores the future supporting mitt romney run by former campaign workers from 20008. there's no official coordination allowed. but we know they're romney friends. they started advertising some time ago. when we saw the poll several weeks ago now, showed newt gingrich with a big lead, the romney super pack, as it's called, came in to essentially

challenge the gingrich lead. negative ads saying gingrich has all of this backage, which i think is what makes the next week and several very critical. he needs to prove himself in new hampshire. tonight, he didn't just lose to mitt romney, he lost to santorum and he lost to ron paul. if speaker gingrich comes in after that in new hampshire, he's going to have a hard time raising money. he believes south carolina is his best option. but i would remind you, yes, south carolina is a very conservative state. iowa and south carolina are probably the two most conservative state ins this process. but south carolina has a long history of being more pragmatic. george h.w. bush clinched south carolina. the south carolina primary, it has a history, pragmatic establishment party, of taking an assessment after iowa and new hampshire and saying what do we need to do for the good of the party. >> it's a tough campaign, as well. >> and they're going to portray newt gingrich as a liberal, you

know, who supported mandates for health care on values, maybe his personal life will resurface again. i mean, you know, immigration will be an issue there. newt gingrich saying that it's only humane if people have lived in this country for 25 years to find a way for them to become citizens. so all of these things are going to be issues. >> and there is a whisper campaign about mitt romney being a mormon. south carolina has a history of getting pretty bruising. tough between the candidates, tough on television. but then the robo calls and the anonymous viewers. >> do you think that played a role for him in iowa? >> tonight, that will be interesting to study that issue. i think it is, without a doubt, it is less of an issue this cycle than it was last cycle. >> be quite happy if the debate is not about the economy. i mean, this is the vulnerability, we thought, as president for the second term. he'll be quite pleased. >> so pleased with a long

campaign. he can sit there, raise money, hone his message and be there, being "presidential" but actually campaigning. >> he's really good. >> one qualifier. he would look in the mirror at his own experience. he benefitted from a long campaign. he was a better candidate. senator obama was a better candidate after going through the grueling process with senator clinton. >> but he captured the country's imagination through his primaries. that is not what we saw here. >> you've been monitoring what's going on. a lot of buzz out there on social medias. >> absolutely. the one thing we've seen for the last few days since we've been monitoring very closely, ron paul still exists in a much stronger way than everybody else in social media. one reason is the type of supporter he attracts. the type of supporter with more libertarian supporter likes the idea of the twitter verse or social media because they feel that it's not governed by what they call mainstream media. he's also got this younger audience that, again, is on the internet a little bit more. but the other thing that i think

we're looking at here is one of the exit polls you pointed out earlier indicates that people who like rick santorum still have the economy as their number one concern, not social issues. >> yeah, i thought that was weird. and thafts one of the things that stood out. >> evangelicals don't only vote on one issue. >> i think a couple weeks ago, we said mitt romney could win e io iowa, win new hampshire. people say republicans are in good shape. i think republicans are in good shape. we're going to divide a primary. >> i'm waiting for south carolina, waiting for florida. this -- this is just testing the waters right now, quite honestly. >> i've been trying to think of something. >> i'll give my time. i'm out of ammo. >> mitt romney does not care about expectations. all he cares about is 1145. forget the delegates, forget expectations and the rest of this stuff. >> yeah, it has been a

remarkable night all the way around. our coverage continues. we're going to take a quick break. we'll be right back. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno.

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congratulations to governor mitt romney, winner. congratulations to senator santorum for a very close second place finish. an excellent race here. congratulations to congressman paul and all of the other candidates who competed. thank you very much. >> what was the turn out at the end? >> the final turn out number was 122,655. thank you, everybody.

>> all right. there you heard. it's actually eight votes, john. he says that romney is the winner by eight votes over rick santorum, ron paul third. how many total turn out, did they say? >> they said 11122, 255. >> certainly not close to the 220,000 or so that turned out a few years ago. do you think this whole issue of whether that is an energized republican base or not? >> the last time around, i think that was a record, 118 or 119 thousand. it's a little bit more. so i'm sure they'll be happy with that. i have heard they were hoping for 140 or 150 thousand. that would have really shown some energy. and they got some independent voters here, presumably, because of ron paul as our numbers showed. >> but it is official, though, the republican party in iowa

says that mitt romney is the winner by eight votes over rick santorum. anderson? >> amazing stuff. so now we know for sure, james, what does it mean? >> oh. well, it means that any award for investigative journalism in television, if we don't get it. [ laughter ] >> there's no justice in the world. that's the greatest moment i've ever seen. the whole night was unbelievable. and that capped it off. folks this has been one weird race so far. i can't wait for new hampshire. something's got to happen. >> i'm going to go out, i think new hampshire is going to be closer than iowa. >> really? >> no. [ laughter ] >> south carolina will be interesting. we still have a haul. but that's what i'm looking most for. >> and the race is going to get nastier from here. >> oh, yes, exponentiall nastier. >> or more delicious. >> if you don't have anything

nice to say, go sit by james. >> nice thing to say about allison. obviously, they have a weak front runner chased by some weak challengers. that's exactly what's going on here. that can produce some pretty interesting stuff. you know, two bad football teams playing can be a pretty good game. >> and as i pointed to the point earlier, the different state that is we're about to see in the next month play a role in that. you talk about south carolina, but what about colorado, minnesota, missouri nonbinding. so all of those different issues come into play. so how do certain candidates appeal to voters in those particular areas is also going to be vital. so, again, they're going to run it out. the other point, tonight's delegates, none were played. they'll be chosen in june. so it's not like all of the sudden you're saying, well, fine, you won the race and you won 25 delegates so you can start the clock. >> you know, go from here and new hampshire and mitt romney is

the favorite. south carolina, florida, key. >> but then the race basically takes a big pause. you have five contest ins february which actually favor mitt romney. you've got maine and then three states that have a generally significant mormon population. mitt romney should do well in a quiet february and then you get to march with a super tuesday. so this still has a lot of time ahead of it and the quiet february left in front of us. >> about seven in february. so let's take a look at the actual numbers. >> yeah, anderson, take a look. the most important number is the bottom of the screen. one hundred percent. that's what we were waiting for. one hundred percent of the precincts have officially reported. mitt romney, you see that check. he's the winner. 30,015 votes. rick santorum second, 30,007 votes. mitt romney wins by a grand total of eight votes. eight votes, ron paul third, newt gingrich fourth and you saw the others earlier.

an amazing moment. mitt romney wins albeit narrowly. on the other hand, john, a win is a win. >> a win is a win. and you've watched, this is our final number, wolf. this is our final number. 30,015 to 30,007. thanks to the dpraet work of our ladies tonight in clinton county iowa helping us crack the difference. clinton county, you don't think of this as much. it's a small county. 32% to 26%. this is the county that made the difference for governor romney tonight. if you pull out this map and you look at the breadth of this, you're seeing a lot of purple. that is rick santorum doing very, very well. a lot of comparisons to mike huckabee. rick santorum, all of this purple. however, many of these counties, that's where you find your tea party voters, your conservative, evangelical, born again christians. he did very well in areas with a small population. governor romney's win, as narrow

as it is, comes because he ran up decent margins in the bigger places, 12.8%, nearly 13% in polk county. governor romney did well there. you come out to the east, cedar rapi rapids, 6.6% of the population. santorum third there. that's one of the reasons. so as you watch this now, you have the closest race in iowa caucus history. wow. governor romney wins, 30,015 votes. you want to see something something 'eerie, we go back, six votes difference. 25%. the same exact percentage. he spent $10 million this time. >> in 2008? >> in 2008. he spent less this time. six votes. >> all right. so we have -- we're going to take a closer look at what this all means. we'll take a quick break. where do we go from here? much more of our coverage.

let me repeat it. much more of our coverage when we come back, you're watching us at the cnn election center. and we're watching the iowa caucuses. . it's the one doctors recommend most for arthritis pain... two pills can last all day. ♪ you really want to be careful, you can't use something as abrasive as a toothpaste because it will cause scratches. as a result of those scratches, bacteria will get lodged in that denture and as they multiply in the mouth the odor can get stronger. i always advise my patients to use polident. it has specific agents in it that can kill bacteria. using polident daily, you definitely will not be creating the scratches. you're going to have a fresh bright smile, and you're going to feel confident.

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and welcome back to our pretty remarkable tournament of events here on election night, night of the caucuses in iowa. mitt romney has won. alley, is, got help him, at this twitter wall. social media screen. but there has been -- there are developments. >> other than -- we've been tracking how many tweets. forget that for a minute. edith and carolyn, who helped us solve this mystery on tv, are trending on twitter and worldwide. edith, guess what else is trending? hash tag cnn after dark. i'm not making this up. cnn after dark is trolling.

not that kind of cnn after dark. we've got all sorts of tweets about edith and carolyn. this one says i really couldn't swear. it's lucy and edith. this is from our jim spellman who spends a lot of time out there. edith and carolyn deserve their own weebles. lots of good stuff. pirs morgan had a show to do earlier. it didn't work out that way. jonathan says set your calendars for the iowa caucus baby boom in nine months. the twitter verse who joked with me, we saw the numbers decreasing. they have woken up again. they have woken up. the twitter verse is alive. edith and carolyn, thank you very much. >> it's really the best live phone call i've ever heard. it was incredible. >> you know what, we're going to try to get them on the phone in

the next few minutes. i want to thank them for helping america solve this mystery. edith and carolyn, they're good friends. they're friends of all of ours right now. we're going to talk to them. i hope they didn't go back to sleep. what do you think? >> i just think it was a great moment in america that it shows that people around the world are watching right now. you're looking at all of these countries with democracy in question. and you realize it still comes down to people counting thicks and caring so passionately about getting it right. most women did their work. >> are most women offended to hear it? i wrote them down as she did it. 437, romney. >> they knew all of the numbers. >> i don't want to be the person who messed it up. >> you know what i drew from this, just quince deigitally, h may have gotten those eight

votes by showing up in clinton county on that day to speak to the folks there and they liked him. there was a big crowd. he did well. and he win it is iowa caucus. not by much, but he wins. >> i come back to a win is a win. if you're mitt romney and three weeks ago you were told you were going to win in iowa, you would have been absolutely thrilled. in your head, you're thinking i'll be second or third. he's won the first one. but provided the second. >> great news. anderson, get ready. come over here. anderson, please. we want you to join in this conversation because, guess what, joining us now on the phone, edith and carolyn. [ applause ] >> let me start with edith. edith, thank you so much on behalf of all of us, on behalf of the american people, we want to thank you for clearing up this mystery. tell us how you feel right now, edith? >> caller: i am just overwhelmed with all of this.

overwhelmed. >> you're happy. >> caller: i am very happy with what's happened here. but i am just amazed because, really and truly, my people did call this in tonight and i don't know where the glitch was. i did hear from romney campaign about 11:20. and i gave them the figures. and then i went to bed and it's been kind of interesting to this point. >> very interesting. let's get the reaction from carolyn. how do you feel about this, carolyn? you were huge in solving this greatness? >> well, i guess if i hadn't answered my phone, the mystery would still be going on, wouldn't it? >> fortunately, you did. >> caller: it was my cell phone. >> your cell phone. anderson, talk to these ladies. >> you're trending worldwide, apparently, on twitter. i just learned. are you big on the twitter? >> not so much.

i just have for christmas, but i don't know how to work it yet. >> would you ladies like to be the coanchors of a new cnn program, "cnn after dark?" [ laughter ] >> very exciting moment in the history of iowa. and the iowa caucus. can we ask you ladies, are you happy that the winner of the iowa caucuses is mitt romney? edith, first to you. edith? are you gone? >> caller: i am happy that it's won. as county chairman, did not take a stand as to who i voted for this evening. and i did not share that. our central committee decided that we would remain neutral and work to promote all of the candidates as they came into our county. they were very thrilled last week when mitt romney came. i'm told we had 750 to 1,000

people. unfortunately, i was not able to attend that event as my mother's cousin had died and i felt my duty was to my family that day. and i attended her funeral. >> i represented you at that event, edith. i was there in clinton county at that event. and you gave the right answer, by the way, as chair. you know, you shouldn't tell us how you voted. on the other hand, carolyn, you may want to share with us how you feel. >> well, i had the same obligation as a central committee member and i shared my caucus tonight. so i had no partiality as far as public and privately, i won't share who i voted for. >> how many years do you two ladies have combined in republican politic in your county? >> i work for two congressmen for 18 years. and i worked in the party locally for quite a while. i would say 30 years. >> i asked because i got an e-mail from a veteran.

and iowans are up all night. we know them well. everyone loves carolyn and fears edith. >> i think that could be true about the fear. i'm not sure about the love. [ laughter ] >> edith has been doing politics since 1972 in this county. my husband was -- my late husband was elected county chairman in 1975. and i've been actively involved since then. >> may i ask you how -- >> this is, by the way, edith, this is david gergen, our senior political analyst. you've probably seen him on cnn, right? >> caller: yes, we have. >> he's going to ask you a question. >> thank you both, very, very much. i'm just curious about how people in iowa are going to feel how close this has been. this has been the closest outcome we've ever had in the iowa primary. and, in fact, a lot of research

suggests it's the closest that's been seen in any primary or caucus over the last 20 years. how should -- the media is going to spend a lot of time trying to interpret this. how do you interpret what's going on? it's been absolutely fascinating. >> i don't know. >> caller: i don't know if i have an answer to that. at 11:20 when the romney campaign staffer called me, and he indicated to me that it was very, very close, i thought, boy, this is very unusual for iowa. but i think it tells you that iowans are looking at this very closely. and we think before we vote. and i realize this is extremely unusual. but i don't have an answer as to how we're going to perceive this. >> hmm. >> caller: do you, carolyn? >> i just wanted iowa to look

good tonight. i wanted good participation. i wanted whomever we voted for to go forward. and, gosh, i just want them to beat president obama, whomever that person is going to be. >> edith, this is gloria here. i want to ask you about turn out because our numbers show that there weren't that many more this time than there were in the 2 008. there were about 122,000 this time. does that -- do you consider that successful? >> yes, i do. yes, i do. >> even with all of the talk about all of the enthusiasm on the republican side? would you have expected more? you didn't? >> well, i would have expected more. i would have hoped for a few more. but i think iowans really want to meet these candidates.

and many of these candidates chose the larger cities to come in into. like they expected us to go to davenport and didn't realize that clinton is the tenth largest county in iowa. that has a lot to say. and that we are very concerned as to who our presidential candidate is. governor branstead eluded earlier to this in the summer in august that he felt they needed to come into all of the counties. and rick santorum did that. >> he certainly did. you know, edith, carolyn, unfortunately, we have to go. but piers morgan is here and he has one final question. >> yeah, lady, congratulations on a magnificent performance this evening. i just wondered, do either of

you have an agent? [ laughter ] >> because if you don't, i'd like to apply for the job. i think you're going to be pretty busy. [ laughter ] >> oh, it's been kind of fun. it's good to be a part of history. >> certainly is. >> thank you very much. >> yeah, edith and carolyn, get some sleep. you guys are going to be busy. there's a picture. are you guys watching tv right now? >> not right now. >> not right now. you're not watching cnn right now, are you? >> well, we're in a different room right now. >> edith is right in the middle of our screen. there's a picture of edith. you've done amazing work. all of us are very proud of you. we're proud of iowa. democracy in action. and you know what, from little kids, we always learn that every vote counts. and that was underscored on this day. thanks to you, thanks to everyone in iowa. for underscoring to the world and the whole world has been watching here on cnn.

they've been watching this show unfold. and we want to make it clear that democracy is good. every vote counts. guys, thanks very, very much. edith and carolyn. >> we can't make this any more. >> it is what makes this country so amazing. >> yeah, get a good night's sleep, ladies. we'll speak tomorrow and take one more quick break. much more of our coverage in a moment. nyquil (stuffy): yeah, we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't.

let me just update you on the official results. a hundred percent of the precincts have been counted. mitt romney win it is